Tag Archives: easy

So here I go from posting about pizza made with local strawberries to a dessert made with biscuits from over 4000 miles away. I made this pie two weeks ago for Easter and for some reason have been struggling to write about it ever since. Was it gross? No, quite the opposite! Was it complicated to make? No way! Do I want to keep it all to myself? Well, it’s not like I made it up…

Basically, I wanted to address my Anglophilia along with this pie since it’s partly my preoccupation with the British that led me to the recipe. It’s just that I have so much to say about the subject (Doctor Who! castles! moors! Jane Austen! Radiohead! Benedict Cumberbatch! tea! Hot Fuzz! the BBC! Harry Potter! accents! humo(u)r! Irn Bru! Monty Python! etc.), but not in a very coherent way. Indecision and procrastination, I shake my fist at you!

Ironically, I’ve never been to the UK even though I have a small handful of friends scattered throughout, from London to Glasgow. Whenever I do go, I’m making a beeline to the Royal Albert Hall for a photo op. It’s a name thing that makes me feel like we’re related.

A little over a week ago, my roommates and I ate at a new restaurant not far from our East Side abode: Hillside Farmacy. As one may guess from the name, they use locally-sourced ingredients (except for, say, the oysters), which seems to be an excellent trend among Austin eateries. Oh, and speaking of trendy, so were the waitstaff along with most of the customers. I never feel cool enough in this town, especially during SXSW days.

During the brief wait for a table, we ogled what was housed in the bakery case. The presence of macarons will never not excite me, plus there were pastries, cupcakes, chocolates, mini tarts, and what looked to be carrot cake whoopie pies. These all come from local bakeries.

After our tasty sandwiches, Maddie and I decided to split a macaron (rose) because she had never had one, and one of the whoopie pies since they looked/sounded good and were recommended by the waitress. The tasty not-so-little cookie sandwich inspired me to make some myself!

If I could go back in time to just last year, I would thank myself for one thing: coconut. I spent all my life hating it, but after putting myself through a year of trying it repeatedly, it’s quickly high-tailing it to my list of favorite things. I keep reminiscing about a recent coconut margarita, and have you experienced coconut ice cream? If not, change that ASAP.

Always seeking out new things to try, one of the most recent adventures involved the purple potato via a curry. Ever since then, I’ve been wanting to pair it with sweet potatoes. This may mostly be for aesthetic purposes because, come on, you know one of the main reasons you visit food blogs is for the food porn. However, the purple spuds are actually little antioxidant powerhouses which I thought would make an awesome duo with their also nutritious orange cousins.

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

Goodness, it’s been quite dull around here! But what’s this? Today is the 27th. This is the Daring Bakers’ Challenge reveal date. I am posting on time! It’s highly possible that a pig just flew by.

Perhaps I was eager to give this Marbled Banana Bread a go. Banana + chocolate is always a winner, but this bread is special because it’s vegan! No eggs, milk, or butter were harmed in the making of this loaf, but I promise that they are not missed. The final product is very moist and flavorful, plus lower in fat and not too sweet. And my, what a looker!

The only vegan-y thing that the recipe calls for is almond milk which you can replace with any milk substitute (I used flax milk) or milk itself. All of the other ingredients are probably residing in your kitchen: ripe bananas, sugar, vanilla, oil, flour, baking soda, salt, unsweetened cocoa powder, and water. Convenient if you’re a non-vegan who has run out of eggs! Continue reading →

Years ago, my bro-in-law went on the Paleo diet. Years ago, a lot of people thought this sounded kooky. “Paleo, as in Paleolithic? What, do you hunt for your food and cook it over a fire?” It sounded like a good, healthy way to eat, but imagining a world without cheese or bread made me sad. And then I went the vegetarian route. Cavemen didn’t eat tofu, apparently.

Now it seems like everyone is jumping on the Paleo wagon. Rachel just threw an engagement party for her little brother and his fiancee. When I asked if there was anything I could make, she said that most of her relatives were eating like cavemen! Always up for a challenge, I said I’d make a Paleo-friendly dessert and set off googling. The first hit (maybe due to my location?) was from the Austin Post for things called Fudge Babies by Chocolate-Covered Katie. After reading a bunch (okay, that’s being generous) of other possible recipes, Fudge Babies it was.

Of course I’m prepared! Cookies are baked, presents are not only bought, but wrapped! hahahahahaha!

Err, right… Tomorrow through Friday I’m going to be doing my annual stint with Trans-Siberian Orchestra which is kind of hampering my last-minute Christmas prep. This is the first day I’ve had off in about five weeks, so I feel less guilty and more helpless than anything. Whee!

If you’re stuck in a similar predicament, but still would like to make instead of purchase gifts, you can go the easy route and bake a lot of variously spiced nuts. Think of the people they’re for: do they like/dislike certain kinds of nuts and have a favorite cuisine? Pick a nut (or a mix) and a couple spices with some sort of liquid for glue, and you’re good! Continue reading →

Pumpkin cookies are often super cakey, and mochi is wonderfully chewy. What if you just replace the regular flour in pumpkin cookies with mochiko? Answer: Jessica worries and spends lots of quality time with google.

The solution that I was happiest with and ended up using came from Joy of Baking, where it’s suggested to use 7/8 cup rice flour to 1 cup all-purpose flour. Mochiko is actually sweet rice flour (or glutinous rice flour), but I decided to give it a shot anyway. To make life easier, I went with her recipe for pumpkin cookies. 2 cups all-purpose flour? 1 3/4 cups mochiko! Maybe too easy?

My uneasiness with flour experimentation and the lack of daylight at 1 a.m. means no process photos. You can see that they turned out looking like totally legit cookies, though! They tasted like totally legit delicious cookies, too.

My roommates and I threw a Halloween party last night. It was pretty awesome, especially because we planned ahead and made stuff! There was a Martha Stewart magazine involved because she has her people have good ideas. We used one concept, but then my brain wheels started turning.

Baked brie….wrapped like a mummy head?? YES. I didn’t find any on the internets (just mummy hands!) which gave me a Martha moment. Ohhh yeah.

Remember how I was complaining about my inability to cut brownies perfectly?

Well, guess what…

I HAVE FOUND MIRACLE BROWNIES.

And I think I’ve also discovered the perfect utensil for cutting them. A happy accident, really…while baking these brownies at my parents’ house, I happened upon it in their knife drawer. Continue reading →

My cat is in Austin now and I have finally baked something. I think that means I’m moved in! We’re going to ignore those three boxes in my room (two and a half, really), okay? Deal.

What to bake first in the new abode? Cookies seemed like a no-brainer. I almost went with oatmeal chocolate chip as they are an old favorite, plus I’ve never blogged them. But then I remembered something a bit similar that Jill had told me about a few times: Martian Cookies!

What gives them the extra-terrestrial name? Zucchini! (Martians are totally green, duh.) They’re not super green, though; you just see little flecks from the skin. If you or anyone you’d feed these to are weirded out by the presence of a veggie in your cookies, don’t be. It’s undetectable. If anything, you’ll be like, “Mmm, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! But what’s that? Ohh, butterscotch!” That stuff is tricksy like that.